Imagine watching your three-year-old sitting at the bottom of a pool having an epileptic seizure; or needing to replace your toilet because your teenage son cracked it with his head during an epileptic seizure.  Those examples are just two of many episodes that Linda and Glenn Dyke experienced with their son Tyler.

Tyler was diagnosed with epilepsy at the young age of three. Varying levels of medication seemed to manage his epilepsy fairly well until he hit high school. His seizures became frequent, sometimes as many as ten a day, causing him to spend much of grade 11 in bed. “When I had a seizure, I would drop to the floor, basically paralyzed,” explains Tyler. “The scary part for me was that I could see and hear everything going on around me but I couldn’t respond.”

Dr. Sadler, co-director of the epilepsy program at the QEII Health Sciences Centre, and his team decided to evaluate Tyler to see if he was a candidate for surgery by observing him in the epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU). This unit is an in-patient hospital room used to monitor a patient 24 hours a day by video and by EEG equipment. EEG recordings show electrical brain signals, or more importantly, abnormal brain signals, which will help pinpoint what part of the brain is causing the seizure so that precise surgery can be performed. Patients are typically monitored for one to three weeks.

Tyler spent his 19^th birthday being observed in the monitoring unit. A few months later in mid 2006, he had his life-changing surgery. “Three weeks after Tyler had surgery, I watched him walk across the stage at his high school graduation,” says Linda. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

Tyler took hold of his new chance at life with a “there’s nothing I can’t do” attitude. He completed a two-year plumbing and piping course at the Nova Scotia Community College and is working towards his apprenticeship. He has a full time job, got his driver’s license, volunteers as a firefighter, and became a Scout leader — all things that were out of the question before his surgery. “I made myself a promise before the surgery that if it was a success, I would not live in fear and nothing would keep me from doing the things I want to do,” expresses Tyler.

While Tyler still takes some medication, he has been seizure free since his surgery. Living in Corner Brook, Newfoundland now, Tyler receives regular checkups from Dr. Jim Scott, who says “Tyler is such a success story; we are so proud of him.” Tyler is extremely grateful for Drs. Scott, Sadler and Brownstone for all they have done for him.

“When I look at him now, he is a completely different boy compared to four or five years ago,” expresses Linda with pride. “His stay in the monitoring unit made all the difference in his life and allowed for his successful surgery. It was so humbling to hear him say ‘mom, I feel like I’m normal’.”

Top photo - Philip Godwin, electroneurophysiology technologist, observes a patient in the epilepsy monitoring unit from an office down the hall.

Bottom photo - Tyler (far left) with his parents in Egypt in March 2010.